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All about locomotive rebuilders, small locomotive works, and experimental works

Moderator: Komachi

 #860951  by Stefen'sRR
 
Hello All,

My company and I are looking for a consultant on certification of engine control systems, specifically diesel power plant engine control “ECU” certification requirements and design impact. We have been out of the locomotive industry for a while, but we are a large Control Systems manufacturer for aero & power gen turbines as well as Group III, IV, & V engines in Marine, Industrial, and Large Vehicular systems. We have a large electronic control system being developed today that is slated for release in about 2 years. We are working to make it a reentry into the locomotive engine market in additoin to the other markets we support and we would like to assure we set the correct foundation for the design to accomidate Locomotive applications.

Please send me contact information for an industry knowledgeable contact willing to consult for a short time, perhpas 2 days to 1 week.

Thank you in advance and have a greatly blessed day.
 #866945  by Stefen'sRR
 
More details as requested:

We are looking for someone to come in for 1-2 days (up to 1 week) and help us setup a plan & requirements document for making sure the control meets market expectations. We need someone who knows the Engine and Locomotive world and knows what and where engine controls need to be, to compete in the locomotive and medium speed engine world. We want to be able to pursue customers, even as fragmented as the market place is. This will be for retro-fit as well as hopefully new development locomotive rolling stock. We need a path to anticipate what we will need for design features, certifications or qualification test requirements, and validation requirements with respect to each aspect of regulatory and functional requirements that may be in place for US/Canada/Mexico, the European Union and other similar world markets.

Since I am an EMC engineer, I have had done some research on using the EU set of requirements and the general guidance documents for the US testing methods. (i.e. EU: EN 50155 & EN 50121-3-2, US: MIL-STD-461D based.) However, we need to understand what is required for features, Design, and Validation / Qualification / Certification beyond the EMC and I am not sure I found everything for EMC.

At this time we don’t have a customer, specific to the Locomotive industry, for the control. We have several customers for the group III & IV stationary enginemarket, as well as potential customers for the off-highway heavy construction equipment market.
 #877997  by mxdata
 
Are you sure you have a potential market for this? EMD/Progress Rail, GE, and Wabtec all have their own proprietary locomotive control systems already, and are using them on new as well as rebuilt locomotive projects. The remaining market is very slim now, most of the smaller builders are already aligned with one of those suppliers. If you are working for Woodward Governor, how do you plan on getting back in the market after you already exited once before?

One or two days a week isn't enough of an incentive for anybody to relocate in this economy. If that is all the work that is available, you are probably going to need to find a qualified retiree locally.

MX